Talk:Kevin McCallister/@comment-74.188.250.83-20190920052005/@comment-108.39.74.143-20190920191234
Anthony "Tony" Stark/Iron Man Debut: Tales of Suspense (Vol 1) #39 The son of billionaire industrialist Howard Stark, Tony is a brilliant inventor in his own right. Following an incident that left him with a piece of shrapnel in his chest, Tony designed an electromagnetic harness to keep himself alive, and eventually, a suit of armour that could be powered by it. He is a major name in the Marvelverse, and a founding member of the Avengers. ---- *10-Minute Retirement: A couple times, most notably, Tony secretly retired and passed the mantle to Rhodey without actually telling most of his fellow Avengers that they weren't the same person under the armor. *A God Am I: After his personality was changed due to the magic inversion of Axis. He's since dropped this after convenient changes to realitySuperior Iron Man: I'm the most intelligent, capable person on the planet. I'm not playing God. All this time...I've been playing human. *The Alcoholic: Has struggled with drinking ever since the infamous "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. He fell back off the wagon during Fear Itself, sacrificing his sobriety as a way to convince Odin to help. He's since worked to get back on. His Superior period had him fall off again. *Arm Cannon: Several suits have allowed Stark to access varying arm cannons. Most notable, the Bleeding Edge Armor had specialized ports for attachments, including several types of massive blasters and cannons for the arms. *The Atoner: For Tony, Iron Man is a chance to redeem himself from his former life as a weapons manufacturer. *Badass Beard: Sometimes drawn with this, not always. *Badass Bookworm: One of the most dangerous bookworms in the whole Marvel Universe. *Badass Mustache: His beard may come and go with the artist, but his mustache is eternal. *Bash Brothers: With Captain America and War Machine. *Big Brother Instinct: Has this towards Arno. *Bigger Stick: The Iron Man armor is the most sophisticated Powered Armour in existence, and Stark works very hard to keep it at the cutting edge, maintaining a vital technological lead over any and all of his business rivals and supervillainous competitors. *Bodyguard Betrayal: Before they learned they were one in the same, Pepper and Happy believed that Iron Man was coercing Stark into acting as his corporate pawn while publicly touting himself as the man's bodyguard. *Boldly Coming: He's tried, at any rate. Unfortunately, the alien species in question found facial hair hideously disgusting, so he got kicked out. *Brought Down to Badass: Any time he loses the armour, he typically manages to still acquit himself well. *The Casanova: The guy loves women. Lots of them. *Chest Blaster: The iconic Unibeam, his chest-mounted super Repulsor. He traditionally only uses it as a finishing move or as a desperate attempt to damage something out of his league, because it drains so much of his power to utilize compared to the weaker, but faster gauntlet Repulsors. *Chivalrous Pervert: Famously the biggest womanizer in the Marvel Universe, yet he's incredibly polite to the women he's chatting up, cares deeply about most of his exes (the Marvel Now relaunch's opening story arc essentially boils down to him wanting to protect the legacy of one of his exes after her life's work is stolen and abused), is VERY protective of his on-again/off-again love interest Pepper, honestly loved (and still loves) Madame Masque, and is always completely supportive of his female teammates, no matter how they dress and pose. **At least one fan has argued that Tony is best described as a "serial monogamist"; when he's seriously involved with someone, he's completely faithful to them, but he rebounds from the invariable breakup quickly and goes looking for love again. *Comic Book Death: He died during The Crossing and was replaced by a younger version of himself. Then that version died in the Onslaught deal. After Heroes Reborn, he got better (sort of. See Fusion Dance). *Crazy-Prepared: Tony has a suit for any and every situation. Sometimes several suits for each situation, just in case he loses one. This has caused friction between team members before, who have been less than thrilled to discover that Tony's built a suit designed to take them down in case he ever needs to. *Create Your Own Villain: A recurring theme for Tony. Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Iron Monger, Firepower, The Hammer Twins and Detroit Steel are all his fault to some extent. *Cunning Linguist: He's fluent in a grand total of seven languages: English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, French, Russian, and Urdu. According to Tony himself, he also possesses proficiency in several other Middle Eastern languages. *Dating Catwoman: Unsurprisingly, Tony's lecherous habits don't stop at civilians and allies. He still has a history with villain Madame Masque. *Deadpan Snarker: Has had a sarcastic streak since early in his career. It has become more pronounced following the films. *Depending on the Writer: How strong his sense of morality is, and how close he is to falling off the wagon. Also, his level of smugness and / or snarkery. *The Determinator: First became Iron Man by surviving shrapnel to his chest and building a powered suit of armor under his captors' noses to escape. Been fighting the good fight ever since. *Disability Superpower: For the longest time, Stark's early Iron Man suits were basically glorified pacemakers to keep the shrapnel in his chest from reaching his heart. *Fatal Attractor: Tony has dated supervillains (Madame Masque), plants hired by his enemies to conduct psychological warfare against him (Indres Moomji), other businessmen/women who were only trying to take advantage of him (Sunset Bain, arguably Tiberius Stone), one night stands who may arguably have date-raped him (Heather), and creepy possessive stalkers who tried to kill him (Kathy Dare, the Living Armor), along with a string of single dates and/or one night stands with vapid supermodels and society women. Even with his most stable girlfriend, Rumiko Fujikawa, she repeatedly jerked him around for her own amusement and outright cheated on him with Tiberius Stone before ultimately being killed by a supervillain. *Fiction500: One of the richest men on the planet. Even when he's not an active member of the Avengers, they're usually bankrolled by Stark Industries. *Flying Brick: Thanks to his armor, he can tank a lot of damage and punch back just as hard. *Flying Firepower: His armour enables both flight and the ability to level buildings. *The Friend Nobody Likes: Initially, his selfishness, arrogance and poor communication skills rubbed a lot of his teammates the wrong way, but they worked together long enough to earn each other's genuine trust and respect. After Civil War, depending on the author and title, he's pretty consistently tolerated at best, even by most other pro-registration heroes. Every time he almost salvages his reputation, he does something else to ruin it with the team again. *Functional Addict: Under some writers more than others. Just how close Stark is to diving head first into a bottle is a pretty major part of his modern characterisation in the comics. The MCU movies stay away from the alcoholism storyline completely, by design (it's Disney and they're aimed at kids and young people...), although they do show Tony drinking casually once in a while. *Fusion Dance: Part of Tony's resurrection after The Crossing was Franklin Richards recreating the heroes closer to what he remembered and in Tony's case, resurrecting him and fusing him with Teen Tony. *The Gadfly: Most modern depictions of Stark depict him as trolling for reactions a lot of the time. *Gadgeteer Genius: Stark is one of the premiere tech constructors in the Marvel Universe. *Guile Hero: Even with his modern Iron Man suits putting his power level among his more powerful peers, Tony still relies on his guile as his first and most useful weapon. *Handicapped Badass: For a time, he was paralyzed after being shot by a crazy lover, using the armor as a means of getting about. Things proceeded to get worse, resulting in Tony nearly suffering total failure of his entire nervous system, and having to go into suspended animation before dying. *Heart Light: The power source of the suit is the same as the magnet keeping the shrapnel out of his heart. In the film version, and most animated versions that came after the first film, the "arc reactor" in Tony Stark's chest always generates a light that can be seen through his shirt. *Hero with Bad Publicity: After Civil War and Secret Invasion, in some comics versions he became known as the man whose leadership led to the death of Captain America and allowed the Skrull Empire to nearly conquer the Earth. And during World War Hulk a lot of Hulk supporters hate him because of the whole "shot Hulk into space" thing. *Heroes Want Redheads: Pepper Potts, Black Widow and Bethany Cable. *Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Rhodey, until Time Runs Out, and Captain America, until Civil War. *Hidden Heart of Gold: He may not always be willing to admit it, but he does care about his teammates and making the world a better place. *Honest Corporate Executive: After becoming Iron Man, he turned his company around and became very concerned with morality and making the world a better place, even in his civilian life. He's turned away numerous projects and dangerous employees on moral grounds, at great expense to both his wallet and his well being. *Insufferable Genius: He just loves to rub his intellect in people's faces. *I Warned You: Just before Civil War, he and Namor have one of these exchanges. Namor angrily asks if Stark's going to say that if they'd just listened to him years ago, the whole situation the superheroes are facing wouldn't be happening. Tony's response? "Yes." *The Lancer: In a "traditional" Avengers team line-up, he plays this role to Captain America's leadership. *Let Us Never Speak of This Again: He's generally happy not to bring up the "Teen Tony" days. *Like a Son to Me: This was his relationship with Peter Parker, when he brought him under his tutelage right before the Superhuman Civil War, and using this relationship was how he convinced Peter to unmask as Spider-Man. When he betrayed Stark to join Captain America, it hurt Tony arguably just as deeply as fighting Steve did. *Lonely Rich Kid: His background in a nutshell, merged with Intelligence Equals Isolation. *Loves My Alter Ego: Played with. During his early career, people on the outside regarded his Iron Man persona warmly as a selfless hero, but thought of him as little more than a bodyguard vigilante with above average intelligence. Learning that they were one and the same caused Hank Pym to experience a Heroic BSoD as he was no longer the sole genius among the original Avengers. In contrast, Tony was respected for his intellect, but was mistrusted and often vilified by the media and his enemies as they still believed him to be the Corrupt Corporate Executive he was before his superhero origin. *Merger of Souls: While nothing was done with it, the aforementioned Fusion Dance did give Tony his teen counterpart's memories. *Mr. Vice Guy: Alcoholism, arrogance, and womanizing tend to be his favorite vices. *Never My Fault: He's never actually apologised for his deeds in Civil War and Civil War II. In the case of the former, he even said after wiping his memory he'd have done everything he did over again. *Not Good with People: He just doesn't relate to other people very easily, and it leads to huge communication problems that only widens the gap between himself and his teammates. *Not So Different: Stark is often just one step removed from the people he's fighting. The Extremis storyline prominently mentions that as a weapons manufacturer, he's no better than the people who built the atom bomb.Tony: But I'm trying to be. And because of that, I'll be able to look in the mirror every morning. *Not That Kind of Doctor: He has several doctorates, but almost never is actually referred to as Doctor Stark. It's almost exclusively Mister Stark, unless he points it out. *Off the Wagon: **He's fallen off a few times, most infamously during the Iron Monger saga, when Obadiah Stane drove him into a mental breakdown. **He fell off due to the stress of dealing with Incursions in secret from his Avenger teammates, and proudly embraced it when his personality was inverted and he became the Superior Iron Man after Axis. *Poor Communication Kills: Tony means well (usually) but he's really bad at explaining things to folk until it's far too late. **For example: During Avengers Vol 3, Tony noticed from the outset that Carol Danvers is turning into an alcoholic. But, despite the problems of a Flying Brick developing a Hair-Trigger Temper when she's drunk on duty, Tony refuses to speak up because it's "not his place", until Carol really screws up. **And another: Before Civil War, Tony learns about the Superhuman Registration Act, which he does tell everyone he can about. What he also learns is that the government's alternate plan is to just try and hunt down every superhuman everywhere... which Tony doesn't bother to tell anyone about (except Steve Rodger's corpse). *The Pornomancer: He provides the page image and quote for a reason. *Powered Armor: The Iron Man suits are among the most famous, if not the prime example, in comic books. *Power Palms: The repulsor rays in his hands are perhaps his most iconic weapons. *Primary-Color Champion: Wears yellow and red. *Really Gets Around: Has slept with or tried to sleep with most major female characters in the Marvelverse (excepting those that are taken by his friends). *Reasonable Authority Figure: Tries to be one as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., even though his method of management rubs a few of the old-school (like Dum-Dum Duggan) the wrong way. Exactly where he fell depended on who was writing him. In Avengers: The Initiative, he immediately steps in once it's become clear Gyrich has massively crossed the line, and cans his ass. *Retcon: Tony was originally one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D., even being among those who inducted Nick Fury. Due in part to the march of Comic-Book Time, this has been excised, and now it'sHoward Stark who helped found the modern S.H.I.E.L.D. *Rich Idiot with No Day Job: Tony used to play up his image as an extravagant playboy to deflect suspicions about being the man in the Iron Man suit. As with most super heroes, his secret identity got leaked to the public eventually. *Rocket Boots: Part of his armour. *Running Gag: Tony complaining about or reacting negatively to magic. He hates magic. *Science Hero: Less so than most other Science Hero Avengers; he's less of a scientist and more of builder, and is generally referred to, not as a scientist, but as an engineer specifically. *Secret Identity: In the early days, Tony claimed that Iron Man was his bodyguard. These days, the secret is out in the open, as Tony Stark revealed it in the July 2002 edition; in this case, it actually got him in trouble as the Iron Man armour was legally now the US Government's to replicate. He eventually managed to make his identity secret again, then publicly revealed it during Civil War. *Single-Episode Handicap: Subverted with his alcoholism. Played straight in the Bronze Age; after being shot by Psycho Ex-Girlfriend Kathleen Dare in vol 1 #242, he was left paralyzed until he bought out a company with an experimental new "biochip" project and underwent risky experimental surgery to repair his damaged spinal cord in vol 1 #248. *Some of My Best Friends Are X: Invoked in The Secret Origin of Tony Stark when Death's Head accuses him of being prejudiced against robots.Death's Head: You’re not one of those guys who has a code against killing 'except for robots'? I hate those krypto-fascists. Iron Man: No! Absolutely not! Some of my best friends are robots an— That sounds kind of robot racist, right? Death's Head: Yes. *Teen Genius: A former one. He was accepted into MIT when he was fourteen and graduated with double-majors in physics and engineering when he was seventeen. Shortly thereafter, his father had him submitted into Cambridge University, where he earned three doctorates, presumably also in engineering and physics, by the time he was around nineteen. *The Team Benefactor: Even when he's not an active member, he's usually funding the Avengers. True in the movies and the comics. *There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Early on, he used military grade weapons to battle street level crime. This philosophy still plays a large role in how Tony goes into battle. *To Be Lawful or Good: During Civil War, he insists he's on Lawful (obeying the Registration Act). Given his acts involve creating a clone of a friend which then murders another person, and imprisoning people, minors included, for life without chance of hearing or parole (in a dimension known to cause suicidal despondency in some people), this rings more than a little hollow. *Token Evil Teammate: He's nicer than the typical Marvel Mad Scientist and cares deeply for everyone, but he's very far removed from being The Cape as he's willing to do some morally questionable things to save the day that his more heroic allies could never bring themselves to do. *Took a Level in Jerkass: Civil War through Secret Invasion Tony takes several, becoming increasingly cold, controlling and authoritarian towards his teammates and long-time friends. His brain-wipe removes it. *Transhuman: Is described as being transhuman following his Extremis and Bleeding Edge upgrades, which turn him into a cyborg. He lost the ability to use the former thanks to a Skrull computer virus and purged the latter from his body during one of his Ten Minute Retirements. *Wide-Eyed Idealist: An oddly specific version from a usually cynical person. In flashbacks in the Illuminatione-shot, Tony expresses the thought that if all the heroes on Earth got together under one banner, they'd face less Fantastic Racism. Namor and Professor X reply that in all likelihood, the opposite would happen.